Opinion: Why Jimmy Hoffa still casts a long shadow over labor
Robots don't need a Hoffa robot. Self driving 18 wheelers are here. You'd be surprised how much freight is moved on the Engineer-less train chugging through your neighborhood. Designated times, maybe in the middle of the night, trucks would be controlled by 5G radio frequency. Be here soon.
Let's face it, Hoffa was a thug. There isn't much to celebrate, brute force worked - for a while. He gave the pension plan to Red Dorfman and Assoc. and they built Las Vegas with it. You can tell a lot about a man by the fruit of his service. It's only the titillating, peep show Hollyweird that brings back the war stories. Business was business. Same as it is done today. Sometimes people disappear, that's part of the Business, too. Remember the comptroller at Enron, Cliff Baxter, shot himself in the back of his head sitting in his car? And Gary Webb, determined to commit suicide, shot himself in the head TWICE with a .45. Don't even begin to talk about Epstein... It's Business and the Collector comes. Same as it is done today.
Does anyone entertain the idea he faked his death to escape the life he created for himself? It seems that happens more than one might expect.
Some shallow and chauvinistic working people certainly got the impression Labor was strong through arrogant thuggery. Some still hold to the tactic in the battle with Capital. Hoffa merged and put in Trusteeship, meaning took over the Treasury of many, many locals, regardless of the democratically elected officers. He was a sledge hammer to any rank and file voice. The tough guy shit went everywhere, most damaging to the Teamsters as a whole.
There were bigger piece of shit Teamster presidents. Dave Beck, what a crook. Tobin screwed Farrell Dobbs and the Dunne brothers in MN. Wasn't Williams bribing US Senators? All time greatest POS Award goes to Jackie Presser. No movie could do him justice. No one ever mis-spent more hard earned working class money more frivolously with such grandeur as JP.
This kind of mobster glorification bullshit film will probably get his dead beat son reelected by the brain dead working class of IBT. Doing labor reporting in the 90's, I was video documenting Teamster for a Democratic Union election campaigns in L.705 and the buzz around Ron Carey, an actual labor leader who directed a strike against the distribution system (UPS) of Big Business under the watchful eye of a government oversight committee. He was threat and Carey was brought down with an internal snitch, similar to what is happening on Capital Hill today. I was always amazed by the lure of the Hoffa legacy and how many members wanted Jr. for no other reason than his name. TDU would be presenting an honest, hard working candidate, capable and willing (Carey, a prime example) - and the members distrusted him or her - instead went for the mobster mindset. Union dues are vigorish for your protection, really quite easy to see. I believe working people have gotten more fearful, helpless, heartless and slave minded since then. They just want to hide behind the biggest bully, as most Americans do. It's the thinking that puts the blue collar Rust Belt voter behind Donald Trump.
Watch the recent PBS Frontline, their report states that in 10 years, 50% of present day jobs will be replaced by a robot or AI, truck drivers included. Robots don't mail-in their ballots for Teamster President.
The working class through Hoffa and other institutional schmucks have let workplace power slip away.
They were never Labor, never leaders.
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First published November 11, 2019
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